Nazi leader Adolf Hitler developed a drug addiction that turned him into a ‘gibbering’ mess, author claims
Hitler allegedly developed addiction to heroin-like substance that ruined his veins & could be responsible for 'erratic' actions
NAZI leader Adolf Hitler was a “gibbering super junkie” throughout the last year of the Second World War, a writer has claimed.
Prize-winning German author Norman Ohler’s most recent book claims Hitler developed a drug addiction in 1944 that proceeded to destroy his veins, and in turn led to increasingly erratic decision-making.
Ohler’s new book – Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany – uncovers the truth about Nazi Germany’s relationship with drugs, and reveals Hitler’s personal addiction for heroin-like opiod Eukodol.
The author claims Hitler’s addiction developed after he narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in 1944, when the German resistance planted a bomb in a briefcase under his desk.
Ohler claims the near-death experience turned him into a “nervous wreck”.
Hitler’s growing addiction prompted him to send raiding parties into Germany’s war-torn capital during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 when his personal supply ran dry.
Troops were ordered to scour pharmacies for supplies, and when their efforts failed, Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, Ohler says.
Blitzed contains extracts from the journal of Hitler’s personal physician, Dr Theo Morell.
A series of entries expose the extent to which Hitler’s body was riddled with drugs.
Dr Morell writes: “I cancelled injections today, to give the previous puncture holes a chance to heal.
“Left inside elbow good, right still has red dots (but not pustules), where injections were given.”
Ohler’s argument that a lack of Eukodol was largely to blame for Hitler’s erratic and paranoid behaviour towards the end of his life has been described as a “remarkable” piece of research.
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British historian and World War II expert Antony Beevor has supported the claims, citing Hitler’s “completely irrational” military tactics in the last major German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge.
Beevor says the theory sheds light on the reason why Operation Foxley – a planned attempt by England to assassinate Hitler – was scrapped.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Beevor said: “All of these elements show how [Hitler] was really no longer in control of himself, but he was still in control of the German armies.
“What we’re seeing is an explanation of the fact why the British in 1944 decided no longer to attempt to assassinate Hitler.
“Operation Foxley was cancelled because they realised at this particular stage that the Allies would win the war more rapidly with Hitler in command, than Hitler being replaced by somebody else.”
Discussing his book with the Today programme, Ohler said: “The massive abuses of methamphetamine, which we today call crystal meth, by the German army shows that the enemy number one were not the British or the French or the Russians, but fatigue.
“The German army was trying to win the battle against sleep.
“That’s why they used it and in the beginning it worked wonders in the attack on Poland and in the so-called Blitzkrieg.”
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